Last week, Facebook standardized its Timeline platform for Brand Pages.  The new Timeline layout premiered last fall for profile users marking the social network’s most drastic layout change.

While the change to the Timeline format may have caught some online traditionalists off guard, as PR and marketing professionals, we think there are advantages to the new display.

The Timeline Brand Page has opportunities for businesses to engage visitors. For example, the layout offers a "cover photo" display at the top of the page which functions as a billboard for the brand.  Additionally, Brand Pages have the advantage of pinning the most important content so it appears first on its Timeline.

But what social media managers may find most useful from all of the new features is the Timeline’s archival function which chronicles the brand’s history into a compelling story. Companies like Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and McDonald's are using this feature to create a more personal experience between its brand and consumers.

What do you think about the layout of the Facebook Timeline? Is it good for brands?

Marking its “strongest iPad launch yet”, Apple recently announced that its third-generation tablet device sold more than three million units worldwide and in just four days. The latest iPad delivers a variety of new features including an enhanced camera and processor, 4G LTE compatiblity, and its most buzzed-about improvement -- its Retina Display.

But what is Retina Display and why is it getting so much attention?  Apple boasts that the new-and-improved iPad features a resolution that nearly doubles that of its predecessor producing four times the pixels of the iPad 2 and one million more pixels than an HDTV. Watch your favorite movie in crystal-clear quality. Read the fine-print of the New York Times’ best-seller. Or, play the internet’s latest game in High-Def. Consumers are raving that the iPad’s razor-sharp display provides an experience like never before.

At Res Publica Group and 36i, our services complement the full-scale of wireless technology; designing programs for and using handheld devices to advance a number of client projects. So, we are excited about the improved capabilities of the new iPad device. But, we want to hear from you. What do you think of the new iPad? Share your comments below. 

As Microsoft prepares to unveil its latest operating system Windows 8, the company is also preparing to unveil a new look for its internationally recognized brand. Windows has taken their logo back to its roots – a window. Originally introduced as panes of glass in Windows 1.0, the logo was designed to emblematize Microsoft’s new view on technology. Over the years, the logo evolved along with each new operating system.

With clean lines, shapes and typography paired with bold, flat colors, the new design is based on the principals of the Swiss International Style.

What do you think of Windows' new brand identity? Leave your comments below.

The Super Bowl has become a TV viewing event that draws audiences to the commercials as much as the game. In fact, 16 percent of viewers say they pay more attention to the ads than the game itself.

Each year, advertisers clamor for seconds in the highly sought-after timeslot, some even forking over as much as $3.5 million. That’s quite the investment.

To help bolster ROI, marketers used social media to further conversations online and engage audiences. Building on the metadata trend, this year, 1 in 5 commercials featured a hashtag and viewers were encouraged to vote for their favorite ads by hashtag on Twitter. In the end, it was Samsung that received the most votes, trailed closely by H&M, M&M and Kia.

Which Super Bowl commercial was your favorite? Here are just a few from Volkswagon, Career Builder, Go Daddy, E* Trade, Audi, Dannon and Cars.com. Leave your comments or a link to your favorite commercial below. 

It’s hard to believe that Facebook has only been around for eight years. However, last Wednesday the Harvard-dorm-room-start-up filed preliminary paperwork for its hugely anticipated IPO. An IPO, or initial public offering, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. The company plans to release its shares in May.

By the time of the sale, The New York Times says the internet giant could be worth as much as $100 billion. That’s excluding the $5 billion in capital the IPO sale is expected to generate. That means, if successful, Facebook will hold the record for the largest internet IPO.

Without question, the most interesting part of this deal is the staggering figures revealed in Facebook’s SEC filings. Figures, the company has kept virtually secret until now, such as:

·        Facebook currently reports an active user base of 845 million. In September, that number was estimated at 800 million users.

·         Every day, Facebook users upload more than 250 million photos and contribute more than 2.5 billion ‘Likes’ and comments.

·         Currently, the company estimates that there are 100 billion Facebook friendships on its site.

·         And in 2011, Facebook earned a whopping $1 billion on $3.7 billion in sales.

We can't help but wonder, do the numbers revealed in Facebook’s SEC filings surprise you? Is going public the right move for the company? And, when the shares do become available, will you be buying stock? 

The Internet: an invention that has undoubtedly changed history. We rely on the internet every day. We use it to make a dinner reservation, get directions, shop, interact with friends. But what if it just disappeared overnight? How would you get by without Google, YouTube, Facebook, or Wikipedia?

As users began logging on to their favorite websites Wednesday morning, they were greeted by censored, blacked out and, in some cases, shut down domains with anti-SOPA messages, as January 18 marked the largest online protest in history.

In case you have been living under a rock or you are one of the last remaining holdouts, you have undoubtedly heard of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) recently introduced in Washington. SOPA and PIPA were introduced to the House and Senate in an attempt to curb the download of pirated movies and music. It would allow the movie and music industries to send Internet Service Providers (ISP's) and search engine demands to deny access to any site found to be sharing copyrighted information. If one person uploaded the new Lady Gaga video on YouTube to share with friends, the entire YouTube website could shut down. 

Thousands of websites participated in the blackout with messages similar to the one found on the English Wikipedia home page that read: "Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge.”

Even the President of the United States is opposed to the current legislation.

The Internet masses made their voices heard as Twitter aggregated more than 2.4 million tweets about SOPA in one day. It's obvious this will not be an easy issue to settle as Hollywood prepares to go to battle against Silicon Valley. But, with tech giants Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, and others prepared to take a stand, this could truly be the battle of the century.

Where do you stand on the issue? Post your feedback in the comments section below.

In last week’s post we discussed how social media is finding its way into every part of our lives. Facebook is predicted to reach 1 billion users by August of this year while Twitter and Google+ are gaining in popularity around the world.

Despite its global acclimation, the London Organizing Committee recently announced a limited social media ban for its 2012 Olympic Games. London volunteers from its 70,000 person volunteer crew, Games Makers, will be prohibited from posting roles, locations or details about the athletes and other events online during the Games’ July 27-August 12 run.

“We understand that many of our Games Makers will want to use social media to share their exciting experiences at London 2012 with their friends and family,” a spokesman told Reuters. “As is standard in most organizations, we have provided some practical guidelines to give basic advice on interacting in a social media environment with the aim of protecting the interests of our workforce and operation.”

Athletes will still be permitted to tweet or post Facebook updates. 

In this day and age, snapping a quick photo and uploading it to Facebook is common practice. Now, volunteers will have to exercise social media restraint. Many people are criticizing the committee for the decision, stating that volunteers could provide one-of-a-kind accounts of the famed event.

Will this restriction set the precedent? Flash back to the 2008 Beijing Games. While social media was certainly on the rise, no policy was put into place as Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites are banned in China.

Do you think the social media ban will limit the public’s discussion of the 2012 London Olympics? Did the London Olympic Committee make the right decision? Leave your comments below. 

There’s no question about it, social media is here to stay. From raising money for disaster-stricken countries to being a forum for celebrity gossip, there is no space social media has yet to invade – including the 2012 presidential campaign.

An early adopter, Barack Obama set a precedent in 2008 for effectively using social media to engage constituents and build support. Now, social media giants Twitter and Google, are jumping on the political bandwagon. 

Just in time for the Iowa caucus, Google launched a hub for the 2012 election that tracks the popularity of presidential candidates using search trends, mentions in Google News and YouTube views. Google.com/Elections organizes candidate information in a centralized dashboard and gives users the chance to weigh in on the candidates and the issues.

“We're launching an election hub where citizens can study, watch, discuss, learn about, participate in and perhaps even make an impact on the digital campaign trail as it blazes forward to Tuesday, November 6, 2012 and the election of the next President of the United States,” a Google spokesperson wrote in a statement.

Launching the same day and using Twitter as its aggregating platform, The Washington Post unveiled a new Twitter application, @MentionMachine. Like Google, the app monitors candidate’s mentions in the media and across the web revealing which candidates are being talked about most and where and displaying the most popular stories and tweets. The app is anticipated to be a good indicator of public sentiment amongst candidates.

Cory Haik, executive producer for news innovation and strategic projects for The Washington Post, says the app has the potential to be “an early indicator well ahead of polls or other traditional campaign measures.”

Only time will tell whether the new Google and Twitter data crunchers will influence election outcomes but, you can bet we will be watching. Will you look to these platforms for up-to-the-minute information on the candidates? Leave your comments below.